429a. Fri 8/6/18: The Viaduct Tavern, Newgate Street, London

Beer: Fuller’s Oliver’s Island 3.8%

Friday lunchtime wander and found this pub. Another Fuller’s and not too busy for a Friday. Got a table with a nice touch of a real potted plant on it (see pic). The warm weather helps in that more people drink outside leaving more room inside to rest your legs.

Very RED ornate (baroque) stucco ceiling, with Greco-Roman features inside and large gilded paintings on one wall. I apologise if my attempts at explaining the architecture are wide of the mark, I don’t really know these things and can’t tell a Doric column from an Ionic column.

Snaffled a rather tasty Pastrami toasted sandwich with my pint.

439bd. Sun 24/6/18: The Scotsman’s Lounge, Edinburgh

Beer: Edinburgh Castle 4.1%

“What really went on there, we only have this excerpt”*

We have left the Jolly Judge and heading back towards our accommodation in Edinburgh. Cath, our erstwhile fantastic host, is unsure that she’s carried out her role to the fullest extent and that she hasn’t taken us to all types of Edinburgh’s drinking establishments.

At this moment, she points out a place called The Scotsman’s Lounge. It sounds lively inside so we head over. Well, rather a shock to the system. Unfortunately, minimal photo evidence exists of this stop on our Edinburgh tour other than a framed picture of the “Declaration of Calton Hill” which sets the scene of this uncompromising establishment.

Although the pub isn’t that busy, it’s raucous and everyone is drunk. Not 10 minutes into our stay, a girl drops a nice tidy pile of vomit onto the floor which then a number of others are close to slipping on. There is a one-man band with a guitar and some backing tracks performing with a belter of a voice various songs of different styles and eras. I dance, sorry. I think he played Message To You, Rudy where I did a bit of ska dancing from my youth, again, sorry. Then, as if out of nowhere, the guitarist comes out with a strange bluesy, rootsy version of Birdcage In Your Soul which flummoxed us all. It must be about 1.30 am, I have my dancing shoes on and the night is young. We are off to Whistle Binkies.

*Mark E. Smith, Cruiser’s Creek

432c. Fri 22/6/18: The Abbotsford, Edinburgh

Beer: Stewarts 80/ 4.4%

On a long weekend break in the Scottish capital with some long-standing friends.

First pint of heavy of the holiday. That distinctive malty background is something rarely tasted down South.

I’m writing this in hindsight but can say there are a plethora of lovely pubs and bars here which have stunning interiors. The Abbotsford have gleaming brass pumps which have a shipbuilding feel to them with huge nuts embedded into the bar and you turn a tap rather than pull them (see picture).

I am in Edinburgh while the World Cup is on. Iceland v Nigeria was on the TV in the bar but sound turned down. There was a discussion about the pros and cons of VAR (Video Assisted Refereeing). There was a general agreement that it should improve the game.

439a. Sat 23/6/18: The Bow Bar, Edinburgh

Beer: Inveralmond Lia Fail 4.7%

Between the Guildford Arms and this bar we did have a pint in Deacon Brodie’s on Princes Street but no photos or blog were recorded for that one although I recall we watched a bit of the Germany v Sweden match there which Germany won late on (although their luck ran out later).

The Bow Bar is in an area called Grassmarket, a popular area for bars and restaurants but not as touristy as Princes Street. The Bow Bar is famed as much for its whisky selection as its good ales. I duly partook of a fair number over the rest of the evening. I got a “scratch off and collect” map of Scotland’s distilleries last Xmas which I brought with me. A fair few were scratched off today. Got a bit peckish about 11ish, quick trip to a basic chippie for chips’n’gravy and then we had to decide where to go for a final drink.

Stick with what you know – back to The Bow Bar.

423. Fri 1/6/18: The Bricklayers Arms, Luton

Beer: Lacons Falcon 4.3%, Wantsum Fortitude 4.3%

There’s a big old World Cup wallchart been put up on the wall in the back bar. We discuss filling it out, using our skill and judgement to predict the outcome of each match. We don’t do that.

Leightron isn’t out, it’s just me brother and I. We play Words on the quizzer. We win 50p thrice, but end up losing a quid.

We do a random pub coin toss. Heads: “stay in Brickies”

We discuss: famous people we have met/talked to. Bjork (me brother). Brix Smith (me). John Hegley (both of us, regularly). Bill Nighy (me… although he didn’t speak to me personally, he was speaking on a mobile telephone – but quite close by – in West Hampstead).

Another coin toss. Tails: go elsewhere. Me brother has asked Anthony to pull the pub names out of a hat (my hat, the Olney grey baker boy), it’s The Black Horse.

439d. Mon 25/6/18: The Post Office Vaults, Birmingham

Beer: Quantock Plastered Pheasant 4.8%

Second pub of my work stop over in Birmingham in a pub AW and others rave about, and I’ve not been able to find in the past. I’ve just had a disappointing pint in a disappointing bar, but this is much more like it.

The Vaults is on New Street, round the corner from the station. The familiar sour smell of hops and spilled beer should should have made it easier to find, but no matter. I’m in now. Everything about the place is a joy, from the hops hanging on the ceiling, to the vast range of quality beers (Bambergs spotted) to the bar billiards and functional, sturdy furniture.

The Pheasant’s a winter ale, though its mid 20 degrees outside and not far off in the vaults. The taste is terrific, however.

There’s some old CAMRA type at the bar who’s happy to give his umprompted opinion of the eight ales on choice to a couple of couples.

They ask for points of clarification and the CAMRA guy’s not very forward. I’m on the couples’ side, even though they’re all on halves, until they sit down and start talking about phantom shitters at work. ‘They should take his DNA’ one of the blokes suggests. The follow up, of an incontinent fellow holidaymaker in Cuba, is equally as scatological. “It was all over the seat. We had to buy him some new clothes”. For some reason, the couples then try some West Indian accents.

The couples leave at about the same time as me. They didn’t seem too bad. I just overheard  some of their less sparkling chat. Caught them talking a lot of shit.

434. Fri 22/6/18: The Criterion, Leicester

Beer: Saltaire Cascade Pale Ale 4.8%

Odd/quirky local, found through the CAMRA app on my phone, and markedly different from the soulless pubco boozer we’d just left. This one has been allowed to develop its own character – and very charming it is too.

The dark wood bar is populated by a handful of locals – chatting to the (markedly younger) barstaff. To the right of the bar is a far brighter seating area, with tables for dining. In terms of eats, the pub serves pizza – and nothing else apparently. The pizzas, mind, look delicious. In the top corner there’s a little telly screening the football; nobody pays much attention to that apart, sporadically and half-heatedly, from us.

Other than the tiny telly, the wall adjacent to the bar is decorated by multiple beer clips. I’m not necessarily fond of this form of exhibition – it often seems the trope of a pub trying too hard to extol its ale credentials. I wouldn’t say I’m enamoured with this display either… but then I’m pointing out the B&T SOD clip to Steph (“bottom right… nine in, two up”) and telling her, probably for the umpteenth time, how it was sold as Bricklayers HOD in Hightown in the 80’s… and isn’t that Czech clip the one from the brewpub we visited in Vinohrady a couple of years back?… etc etc. The beer clips, a notice suggests, are available for folk to keep – for a contribution to charity.

The beer is very good.

Great pub. Didn’t look that way from outside, and we certainly wouldn’t have gone in but for the Good Beer Guide endorsement… not that we want to be CAMRA cheerleaders, but their recommendations invariably come up trumps.

Irritatingly, personally, my camera battery packs up. I have a spare. The spare has enough charge to take two more photographs. Annoying, and all my own stupid fault. Remaining snaps on this trip will be through the lens of an i-device.

426. Sat 2/6/18: The Wigmore Arms, Luton

Beer: Adnams Ghost Ship 4.5%

We’ve popped in after shopping at Asda (where we bought baguettes, forgotten from the earlier “big shop” but required for our upcoming BBQ). It’s sultry hot outside – I’m in shorts (a sartorial choice prompting Stephanie to ask “do you know what you look like?” before we went out). England are on the telly – a pre-WC friendly against Nigeria.

The Wiggy is dressed up to the nines already in World Cup guff: mostly consisting of variations on the St George’s flag, while other nations are represented in bunting form. England are winning 2-0.

The pub has gone downhill, it’s been reported, over recent months (and there’s erstwhile-manager gossip that I hadn’t heard previously), but today it seems just as it has been for recent years – a busy, bustling, rough around the edges but/and friendly community local.

I’m not necessarily a fan of AGS, but the beer tastes lovely today.

434a. Fri 22/6/18: Robbie’s, Edinburgh

Beer: Hamealedaeme Nae Bitter 4%

We have arrived at Robbie’s from a meal at the oldest curry house in Edinburgh and a mighty fine curry it was too. The curry house is the first of many great recommendations from Cath (who lives in Edinburgh). It’s a BYOB place and we stop off at a great little off licence called “The Bob Vivant’s Companion” where we were assisted in the best bottled beer to go with curry (I go for a Saison style beer).

There is some hilarity when we complement Cath on her choice of an easy drinking French cider only to see that the label says it’s only 2% ABV.

The pub afterwards is a walk down the hill and actually just inside the environs of Leith. We have difficulty pronouncing the name of the beer and now I look at the pump label seems to allude to the fact that Scotland haven’t qualified for the World Cup finals since 1998 but they’re “Nae Bitter”.

Cath helps us plan for tomorrow’s trips and good pubs and bars to try and said she would look into a suitable place to watch the England v Panama match on Sunday (a somewhat difficult task bearing in mind our location) but she came good again.

435. Fri 22/6/18: The Blue Boar, Leicester

Beer: Exit 33 Stout 4.7%

Just down the road from The Criterion – appraisal of this place, according to my write up, stymied by the amount of time and drink we enjoyed beforehand. Notes, verbatim, go:

Crafty brewpub. Excellent place. Good beer.  No tellies. One big, rectangle, room – Czech beerhallesque. Too piney… I dunno, I’m guessing – I’m increasingly pissed.

Good place – no music, tellies or owt… just conversation, which rankles over aged folk saying “like”. I’m still trying t’get photos, taken here, on a device, sent t’work… which is problematic. Beer is very nice. I’m too soused to fully appreciate it.